Bayer plans to cut workforce by 2,000 jobs to save €800m/year

18 November 2010 22:19[Source: ICIS news]

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Bayer plans to reduce its workforce by 2,000 by 2012 as part of an €800m/year ($1.1bn/year) cost-cutting programme, the chief executive of the German pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals producer said on Thursday.

The programme aims to shift the company’s focus toward researching, developing and marketing new products in its pharmaceuticals and pesticides businesses, as well as expanding activities in emerging markets, Bayer said.

Bayer said about 4,500 positions - including 1,700 in Germany - would be cut, while 2,500 new jobs would be added, mostly in emerging markets. The company did not specify from which units that jobs would be cut.

“The cutbacks involved will not be easy, but they are necessary,” said Bayer CEO Marijn Dekkers. “That is the only way we can sustainably finance our investment in growth and innovation - for example in new pharmaceutical products, in our bioscience business and in the expansion of our capacities in Asia.”

The €800m/year in savings would be realised beginning in 2013.

Dekkers said sales and earnings were under pressure from generic products, rising development costs and the effects of health care reforms.

About half of the €800m/year in savings will be used in future investments, the company said.

Bayer would take a restructuring charge of €1bn, it said, with part to be booked in the 2010 in fourth quarter. The full amount would be realised by the end of 2012, it said.

The cutbacks would represent a 1.8% drop in Bayer’s workforce of 108,700.